Blood magic,pure fire EK totem chieftain using Roth's Reach and Signal Fire - advice needed!

Hi,
I've done a succession of OP builds this league (mainly abusing poison) so fancied something a bit different. Also wanted to play with a few of the new fated uniques as well as try some playstyles I haven't tried for a while.

Idea started with using Roth's for EK, which has been done a few times. Then thought I could use signal fire for 'free' more fire damage. And then thought, if I'm doing that, might as well go all out for fire damage so I can get the most out of fire pen.
Was originally thinking Berserker for the leech and more multiplier.

But EK is expensive mana wise, so I thought maybe blood magic, or totems. In the end I settled on using both, which made chieftain a no brainer.

And if I'm using chieftain, with the regen and andurance charge generation, why not maximise on it? So planned to grab endurance charges and use 1 or 2 kaom's way rings.

So - how is it going?

Levelling was fun. I fully twinked him out with a + 1 tabula, and used empower 2 then empower 3. EK scales ridiculously well with levels early/mid game. Taking out empower dropped my dps by 50% or more.

Eventually I dropped the tabula though and put gems in the bow, which lost me a chunk of DPS. At lvl18+ EK, added fire becomes better than empower again too.

Now at lvl 74 and getting into mapping. It's kind of OK, but not really a t1 build. clears packs fine, but the single target isn't great. Not sure how it will cope with red map bosses, especially with any resist/EE/enfeeble mods.

Playstyle is I drop totems, and dual curse with my split arrow/curse on hit setup - the roth's gives that free chain too so it hits most of the screen. Cast enduring cry to get charges running, then let the chieftain bonus keep them topped up.

Any ideas for improvements greatly appreciated. I want to keep the core idea of the build though - I know it's probably better as self cast, or dropping the roth's idea.

My character is RothTheHellAmIDoing at https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Carlovski

Passive Tree


Idea is to mainly grab life next, only at just over 5k atm. Not sure about grabbing more totem nodes and more fire damage nodes over just grabbing every jewel socket in site. Can probably just get tri damage jewels fairly cheaply, should be getting enough life with available nodes + kaom's.

I want/need to get a bit of ignite chance to proc my ignite based bonuses, but not sure if worth investing in any more, EK hits hard, but not that hard.

Currently need to route through diamond skin to cap resists, and then endurance charges overcap me. If I drop a kaom's way for a rare, I could route more efficiently and open up access to Arsonist.

Ascendancies

Hinekora is a no brainer. I've also taken Ramako for the endurance charges and regen. Does mean I can't take Tukohama though, which is a shame as it would make ele reflect maps a lot easier.

Current thinking is to take Arohongul last.


Gear



Gear mainly picks itself. Big decision is whether to run 2 kaom's way or just 1. Currently running 2 but seriously considering switching to 1 and a life/resist rare. More life and makes gearing easier.
Got a 40% ek damage helm I'm trying to craft atm (No really good enchants, proj speed less of an issue for totems, flammability effectiveness might be an alternative)
Other option would be to run essence worm and hatred. But we would only get 50% effectivness from it due to avatar of fire.

The enchant on the boots is good (a 10% would be better). It's not always up, as if we kill with ignites, it nobbles it, but it's mainly up.

Gems

EK totems

EK -Spell Totem - Added Fire - Faster Casting - Controlled Destruction - Fire Penetration

Empower might be better than faster casting, or faster projectiles for utility, but don't really want to recolour now i've got 5 off.

Curses

split arrow - curse on hit - enfeeble - flammability

Tempted to swap out enfeeble for a quality ele weakness. I would run a doedre's damming and triple curse, but would need to lose Kaom's to run a 5l if I wanted to use curse on hit. Or could curse on hit for 2 and self cast ele weakness on tough enemies.

CWDT - ice spear - gmp - inc crit strikes

This keeps my ele overload up (plus occasional crits from curse setup) don't want immortal call here, would rather keep charges up. Can swap in if I feel I need self cast immortal call for anything.

Vaal Haste - inc duration - enduring cry - lightning golem

Utility stuff. Vaal haste is a good dps boost and clear speed boon. Inc duration does give me longer on the bonus life regen from enduring cry too. Hit about 1200 with charges up.
Problem is no room for blink arrow - could drop the golem, or could use an unset ring


So, any good ideas? I'm a bit low on funds for much more gear, though I am selling off some of my reach stuff. Happy to burn a load of regrets if needed, but as mentioned, would like to keep the heart of the build.

Hey man - I was just thinking of almost this build exactly, except not going BM.

Basically, EK is one of the highest damage spells. Given its raw damage over cast speed.
Its physical, so it can benefit from Added Fire, Hatred, Herald of Ash, and uniques like Signal Fire adding basically an extra (low level) Added Fire.

So with its base damage already being the highest physical damage spell in the game, we also add:
44% fire (Added Fire)
36% cold (Hatred)
15% fire (HoA)
35% fire (Signal Fire)

That is a huge amount of ADDED damage which is also based on the percentage of the original spell.

I was also thinking of using the new Xoph's bow, which would then convert the last 50% of damage to fire, so that the build is effectively all fire (except for the hatred cold part).
So a 100% fire based EK with (44 + 15 + 35 = 94% MORE fire damage) - and 36% MORE cold damage, and thats just with 1 gem socket, 2 auras, and 1 unique.
The Xoph's bow also heals you for every target ignited, making it another nice defensive bonus --- NOTE: not sure if this works with totems (does it heal you when your totems ignite a target? or does it heal the totem?).

Then using Fire Penetration in the gem link provides 100% benefit, and running something like Orb of Storms + Curse on Hit + Flammability + Temp Chains (or ele weakness for more damage - or enfeeble - or whatever).

Gem link would be:
EK + Spell Totem + Added Fire + Controlled Destruction + Fire Penetration
(6L: Empower or Faster Casting or Iron Will)

Yes as for not using Xoph's bow, you could also go Avatar of Fire to convert that other 50% phys->fire, and then you'd lose 50% of Hatred's cold damage, unless you also used Pyre or socketed Cold to Fire (Pyre would be better option there).
Pyre is a nice mechanic if you are not proliferating (with Xoph's bow) because it destroys ignited targets on kill, meaning no nasty porcupines, detonate chests/beyond bosses, and so on....and at least it has some OK resists with it. Not a great ring, but lets you use AoF and get full bonus from Hatred (and any other cold sources you might have on gear). You could also run Herald of Ice on it then as well, which would add 100% fire damage.
(Hatred + Herald of Ash + Herald of Ice)


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So anyway....in theory, this build sounds OP as hell. Pretty flexible with gear choices, not needing expensive uniques, easily done for under an ex without the kaoms (and then getting kaoms later is pretty feasible), and seems like it would really do well.....

The question is - does it make sense to go signal fire and bow or would you get more out of it by doing something like 2x Doryani Catalyst, or a Sire of Shards, or anything like that? Obviously without the fire conversion you would become a hybrid phys/fire/cold EK spell, so would drop Fire Penetration for something else (faster casting then for sure).
So maybe even just a good spell damage + spell crit + projectile speed + added dmg to spells wand/scepter/dagger would even be best. Could dual wield, or go with shield but I think DW makes more sense given totems are fairly safe to play already - and damage output is the highest priority here.